SAS’s Gothenburg-Copenhagen is so short that you can’t expect anything in terms of service, but at least it’s very convenient.
Off to Copenhagen, from where I’ll catch a flight to Chicago. Even though I’m an absolute fan of flying, I have to admit that with a 228km flight as the crow flies, there’s really nothing exceptional about the experience: no sooner have you left than you’ve already arrived. But the air service between these two cities is essential, as Copenhagen is one of SAS’s hubs, and the local geography (Scandinavia has a lot of water, after all) means that a land route is 600 km long, via the superb Øresund bridge.
So here I am, ready to go for that short hop before getting down to serious business.
As a reminder, here is the air routing for this trip.
And at the bottom of the page you’ll find all the articles about this vacation in the USA.
Check-in and ground course
I checked-in the day before but couldn’t get my boarding passes in electronic format, certainly because my final destination was the USA. So I’ll have to go through the check-in counter, but as I have a suitcase to check-in anyway, I don’t mind.
I arrive at the airport in the early morning by Uber, giving me a chance to admire this architectural feat…
Hardly anyone at the check-in desks.
It takes me a minute to check-in my suitcase and collect my boarding passes. As usual, the staff are lovely.
I head for the security checkpoints via the fast track, which in Gothenburg is always much faster than elsewhere, as I hardly ever see anyone there…
One last look at the deserted terminal and I’m through the controls in no time, exchanging a few words with the staff. They’re really relaxed here, it’s a change from Roissy…
I’m going to spend a good hour in the SAS lounge waiting for boarding time. I’m getting used to this flight and I know it never leaves on time, so I’m in no hurry, and I’m right: I’ll arrive right on time for boarding, but the agents have just arrived and there’s no rush at the gate.
Anyway, the plane will arrive only a few minutes later.
There’s no need to worry: the flight is advertised as taking an hour from gate to gate, so knowing that it’s only 228km there’s plenty of leeway, and from experience I can tell you that it always leaves late and often arrives early.
Boarding will start 15 minutes later than scheduled.
Boarding
Boarding begins with a strict respect for priorities. I’m one of the first to descend the stairs to the tarmac to board, as the ATR72 is not suitable for jetway boarding.
With this Scandinavian weather for August, I don’t linger and head for the shelter of the cabin.
The cabin
The aircraft is in 2-2 configuration, with attractive leather seats. SAS Plus passengers (the equivalent of premium economy, as there is no real business class at SAS for short/medium-haul flights) are seated at the rear of the aircraft, as this is where passengers embark and disembark, allowing them to exit first.
The seat is comfortable enough, but lacks knee room. Apart from this constraint due to the size of the aircraft, I find it even more comfortable than the seats on their A320s.
Outside the weather hasn’t improved, and the rest of the passengers are queuing in the rain to board…
It’s amazing how many people you can fit into an ATR…
We’re finally ready to leave…
The flight
Warning…this is going to be very short…
We’re obviously late for take-off, and I’ll leave you to admire the superb video of the take-off, with rain, clouds, more clouds and finally a timid blue sky.
On SAS, medium-haul service is reduced to its simplest form (water or coffee) on SAS Go (Economy) and a little more sophisticated with a lunchbox and a wider range of beverages on SAS Plus.
But given the duration of the flight, it’ll be the same for everyone on this route: one drink and that’s it.
The service starts very quickly, even though we’ve barely broken through the cloud cover…
I’ll have a cup of tea while watching a series…
And we don’t go much higher: after a few minutes the descent already begins and we plunge back into the clouds.
Fortunately, it’s August…
Arrival and disembarkation
We begin our descent in the greyness, and only catch a glimpse of the ground before we hit it…
After a long drive, we park at a remote stand and are disembarked by bus. Right on time, despite a 25-minute delay on takeoff: the flight took 35 minutes from gate to gate, proving that the “official” 1-hour flight time is really intended to be generous.
If you take one of the A320-operated rotations, you’re down to 25 minutes!
The bus eventually drops us off in the terminal, and all I have to do is walk through the endless corridors of Copenhagen airport to get to the lounge, as I have a 5-hour connection!
The crew
What to say? It did very well and with a smile the little it had to do in such a short time.
Bottom line
Not much to say except that I arrived in Copenhagen after a 35-minute flight and a journey that felt more like a subway shuttle than a real plane trip.
Autumn weather, omnipresent clouds and no way of taking photos of the beautiful approach to Copenhagen, service reduced to a minimum…not much to remember about all this except that the journey takes 35 or 25 minutes depending on the aircraft used, in case one day it becomes a Trivial Pursuit question.
It’s hard to write anything interesting about a Gothenburg-Copenhagen flight if there’s no outside element to brighten up or disrupt it….
The articles about this vacation in the United States
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